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Visit to Fort William: Cruise on Loch Shiel

Sailing on Loch Shiel

From Oban we traveled to Fort William and then we went for a two hour cruise on Loch Shiel. Fort William is the second largest settlement in the Highlands of Scotland with around 10,000 inhabitants — and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger. It is a centre for hillwalking and climbing due to its proximity to Ben Nevis and many other Munro mountains.Around 7.33% of the population can speak Gaelic.

View boat on Loch Shiel

Loch Shiel is a 17 1⁄2 miles long freshwater loch, 393 ft deep, situated 12.4 miles west of Fort William in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. Its nature changes considerably along its length, being deep and enclosed by mountains in the north east and shallow surrounded by bog and rough pasture in the south west, from which end the 4 km River Shiel drains to the sea in Loch Moidart near Castle Tioram.

Glenfinnan Railway Viaduct featured in Harry Potter series

The surrounding mountains are picturesque but relatively rarely climbed as none quite reaches the 3,000 ft required for Munro status. The area is well wooded compared to the many Highland areas that have suffered from overgrazing, and much of the shore is designated a Special Area of Conservation. Uniquely for a major loch the flow is not regulated. Boat trips for tourists have recently started on the loch. Loch Shiel is only marginally above sea level and was in fact a sea loch a few thousand years ago when sea levels were higher.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Charles Edward Stuart (1720 – 1788), commonly known in Britain during his lifetime as The Young Pretender, and often known in retrospective accounts as Bonnie Prince Charlie, was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, France and Ireland (as Charles III) from the death of his father in 1766. This claim was as the eldest son of James Francis Edward Stuart, himself the son of James VII and II. Charles is perhaps best known as the instigator of the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising of 1745, in which he led an insurrection to restore his family to the throne of Great Britain, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden that effectively ended the Jacobite cause. Jacobites supported the Stuart claim due to hopes for religious toleration for Roman Catholics and a belief in the divine right of kings. Charles's flight from Scotland after the uprising has rendered him a romantic figure of heroic failure in some later representations. In 1759 he was involved in a French plan to invade Britain which was abandoned following British naval victories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Stuart